Light Seeking Light
by SisterGrimmErin
Summary: "To seek the light of truth, while truth the while doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look. Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile; so ere you find where light in darkness lies, your light grows dark by losing of your eyes."
1. Wisdom's Price

**A/N: Let's hear it for my beta Neko Kuroban!  
****What was Annabeth like before she met Percy? What's up with her and her mortal family? How does she get along with Athena? Why won't she give up on Luke? How did she develop hubris? What does she want more than anything else? Why did she want to join the Hunters? Why didn't she?**

_**To seek the light of truth, while truth the while**_

_**Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look.**_

_**Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile;**_

_**So ere you find where light in darkness lies,**_

_**Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.**_

_**-William Shakespeare, Berowne, Love's Labor's Lost Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 72-79.**_

**If these questions are yours, then read "Light Seeking Light," the story of Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and her journey to Camp Half-Blood, adventures within, and adventures without. To continue through pre-Lightning Thief until The Last Olympian- completely In Canon.**

_Light Seeking Light_

_Chapter One:_

_Wisdom's Price_

_Chase Household, Virginia January 1__st__, 2000_

Dr. Frederick Chase POV

It was two o'clock on the New Millennium when I lost my daughter.

"Kate, where's Annabeth?"

My wife looked up, concerned. "I guess we lost track of her at the block party." Then she remembered who, exactly, Annabeth was. "Oh, God! Is she all right?"

"It's okay. We'll find her, Kate." _We have to_, I thought fiercely. If anything ever happened to her, I didn't know what I'd do with myself.

But many hours later, there was no trace of her anywhere on the street. We finally trudged back to the house to search her room.

We searched her closet to find her sneakers and hiking boots gone. A few key clothes items and her teddy bear were missing too.

I was still in shock. Hadn't I told her time and time again that it was _dangerous_ to go out alone? Didn't she know how important she was to me? That she'd been my best surprise ever? Hadn't we sat just a week ago in her chair reading a book on wartime destruction of national monuments?

My face was ashen, I knew it. Kate was crying.

I prayed, expecting no answer. "Lady Athena, please tell me if our daughter is all right."

"She's fine, Frederick. No thanks to you," said the goddess of wisdom coldly, having just popped in to take my daughter away forever. Kate knew who Annabeth's mother was, but she still gasped in surprise.

"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.

"You failed to give her the wisdom she deserved! Such potential and importance in that child, and you couldn't even send her to private school!"

Money had been tight, it was true. And that had seemed so unnecessary since I'd met Kate... "She's six and a half years old!"

"No. Her birthday was today."

"What?" I sputtered.

"That's why she ran away. You forgot."

"But..." I trailed off. My heart turned to lead. While we'd been celebrating the New Year, my baby's heart had been breaking.

Kate tightened her grip on my hand, hot tears running down her face.

"I have pointed her towards the path the Fates have set out for her. She will be a great heroine."

"She's barely seven years old! How can you do this? You told me I was to raise her!"

"And a great job you'd been doing of that. Wisdom has a price, Frederick."

"Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to cry, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself," I whispered through my heartbreak.

A frown tugged at the goddess' lips. "Interesting, as always. I will watch over her. She will reach her refuge safely."

"On the River Styx?" asked my wife.

Athena frowned at Kate. "If you so insist. I vow upon the River Styx that she shall be safe until you see her again."

My heart leapt, but before I could ask, Athena was vanished as silently as she had come.

Kate gasped in pain suddenly.

"Frederick!" she cried. I knew it then, though how I'm not sure- her contractions had started. The baby was coming.

I was torn. I had Athena's oath that I would see her again. But this felt like a betrayal.

Then I saw Kate's desperate, doubtful face and carried her, depsite her protests, down to the car.

A Few Hours Before

Annabeth POV

"Who are you?" I blinked up at the lady whose eyes were remarkably like mine.

"I am many things, among them your mother," replied the lady.

"Wait- but Daddy said he didn't think my mom would come for me for a long time, 'til I was old enough for grown-up shoes."

"Does your Daddy always remember everything?"

I blinked again, looking up at her.

"Almost. He forgot my birthday."

Athena pursed her lips in distaste, but she offered a challenge rather than sympathy.

"How do you feel about an adventure, Annabeth?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "I don't even know your name or if you're really my mother."

A smile tugged at the corners of the stranger's lips. "Then know this. I am Athena, goddess of wisdom, warfare, and crafts. I love you,, and, and I will protect and guide you. You will be safe."

I knew who Athena was from the books that Daddy had read to me, from the monsters I'd seen, and from our identical eyes. "Can I have something to remember you by?"

She smiled again. "Yes, my daughter." She kissed my head, and I felt myself actually grow s a little bit stronger. A few inches taller. Wiser. Braver.

"Thank you, Mother," I heard my voice say, though it sounded different. I looked down to see I was wearing a Yankees T-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. How strange, I'd been wearing a pink skirt a few minutes ago. I touched the owl pendant around my neck hestiantly.

"It is my blessing, just as I gave to Odyessus. It will help you on your journey. If you can walk up to the center of town- which you will- you can find a girl with raven-black hair and electric blue eyes and a boy with blonde hair walking alongside each other. Help them, and they will help you in return."

"I will," I promised.

"Once you reach the hill, tell them you are mine. The centaur will know you. Do all you can to save the boy you have accompanied from temptation."

"I will."

"Train hard, be kind but firm with all you meet, do your best not to make enemies or rash judgments, but do not shirk from warfare when it comes."

"Yes."

"It is too much for you now, but it will make sense later. I must go. Shield your eyes."

I did so as she vanished in silver light. The owl pendant around my neck felt heavy, but in a good way.

I was a daughter of Athena, and I was going where I belonged.

---


	2. Electricity

_Light Seeking Light_

_Chapter Two: Electricity_

At first, I walked quickly when I was afraid of being discovered. But I knew not to run- I would be stopped and questioned. My backpack weighed heavily on my shoulders, still thin despite my recent maternal-induced growth spurt.

I grew tired after I reached the crosswalk. It was cold for Virginia, and I was thristy and hungry. But I trudged on into the winding alleys of the bad side of town. I had a feeling people like my mother had described would stand out in the parts I knew.

An hour later, after my feet were burning and I was sticky with sweat, I found them.

Immediately, this pair stood out- a little larger than life, a little too colorful to be real. The girl's hair was raven black in long waves I immediately envied, but it was her eyes that made you pay attention.

So dark blue as to almost be black, but, if you looked very carefully, you could see moving sparks of blue electricity in the iris. She had deathly pale skin, as though the sun feared her, but had some light freckles across her nose even so. Her features were fine and classical, but the set of them inspired not femininity but leadership. The appearance of regality was either offset or enhanced by her footless tights, dog collar, sequined skull tank and Doc Martens. Weapons glittered at her wrist and side.

The boy's hair was golden-blonde, , , and tousled, his eyes the mischevious green of emeralds, and he had a smile that made you do things you'd regret. His clothes were a black tank top and ragged, dirty shorts.

They were clearly a couple, even to my seven-year-old eyes. They gave off happiness and contentment in waves, but a slight electricity too- literal and figurative. Also, the love in their eyes was clear to maybe anyone but each other- a love that said, given the chance, they would do anything to save each other, from anything.

I shook myself out of the trance the two had put me under- next thing you'll know some goddess of love will be messing with my head and my life until a crazy love triangle builds up between me, some guy who lets an evil presence take over his body, and another guy who doesn't even know how to do basic algebra equations.

"Hello," I said to them. They stopped, shaken out of their conversation and wary, because that's all they knew of people.

"I'm Annabeth Chase. Athena sent me."

The girl looks down at me warily. "Why?"

"She's my mother. I need help getting to the hill."

"Are you sure about this, kid? This isn't an adventure. It's scary. There will be monsters, all kinds," the boy's tone irked me, as it would any seven-year-old.

I looked up at him, going for bravery. "So's life."

The girl looked me over and smiled approvingly. "We can't just _leave_ her, Luke. And I like her."

"I'm right here, you know," I pointed out, annoyed.

She grinned again at me. "Sorry. I'm Thalia Dolca, daughter of Zeus. This is Luke Castellan-" **(A/N: Dolca means Lighting in Russian, for the word freaks.)**

"Son of Hermes. So I hope you don't have much money to lose." His grin was dazzling, but he wasn't really joking.

"We better get going," Thalia said, looking around warily. "I think a drachma could get us to Baltimore."

Luke held a coin out and winked at me cheesily. I giggled.

Thalia sighed. "O Hail, Chariot of Damnation!" she shouted in Ancient Greek after Luke flipped her the coin.

A cab pulled up. Thalia and Luke exchanged a glance, then sat at opposite ends of the seat with me squished between them. This is the first time I noticed the drivers.

_Hag_ really was too minor a word for them.

Picture some old lady if she was still alive in thirty years. Remove their eyes and dentures. Take away any semblance of hairstyle.

Multiply that ten times, and you have the Gray Sisters.

Despite being repulsed by them, I could tell Thalia and Luke had a plan. They seemed to be arguing with their eyes, which occasionally flicked toward a single blob the Gray Sisters were squabbling over.

I wondered briefly if I would ever have that kind of connection with someone, where we could ask and answer with only eye contact.

It seemed unlikely at the time.

Then I shook myself out of such far-off thoughts and watched Thalia grab the Gray Sisters' eye.

The sisters moaned. "Not again!" cried one.

"What are mine and Luke's fatal flaws?" said Thalia, eyes narrowing.

"Ugh," the Gray Sisters moaned.

Thalia made a window-tossing motion with the eye.

"All right!" snapped the Gray Sisters. "You both have the same flaw."

"Which is?" Luke prompted.

"Oversimplification. You both see the world as good and bad, right and wrong, set in its ways, and believe some things endure forever. Beware, Son of Hermes, Daughter of Zeus. Love is powerful, but like any great power, it can be twisted to do wrong. Know you this: You will both betray and hurt the other for which you believe is right."

"So dramatic," hissed one. "Can we have the eye?"

"You're lying," Luke said raggedly. "I will never hurt or betray Thalia."

"Give it five years," shrugged the one who had spoken s sp

spo . "Five months, even. Love is easy to bend and twist and stab. NOW GIVE US OUR EYE."

I mutely handed the eye to them, from a shocked Thalia's hands.

"Sometimes, it's better not to know," cackled one. "Now, where are we going?"

**A/N: I love Annabeth at this age, she's such fun because she's so observant and so little that she sees everything without people knowing it. The question is not to review because that's a command not a question!**


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